Remember how I mentioned a mental shift? Just more evident today as I put 10# more on my squat.

Squat

• 2x5x45 (warmup)
• 1x5x60
• 1x3x90
• 1x2x120
• 3x5x155 (work)

These felt heavy, heavier than ever before and I felt it. But, instead of the brain going “oh shit, this is heavy! what the hell are you doing?! you’re going to kill yourself” the brain was going “Oh shit, this is heavy! That’s awesome! You’re going to pound out those reps and when you rack that bar you’ll have set a new PR (personal record). Hell yeah!”. It starts the same, but finishes in a much better state of mind. I came. I saw. I lifted more weight than last time. 🙂

The bar moved a little slower than the last workout, but not much that I’m going to care (I slept a little crappy last night); I’ll still bump up 10# next workout. It was a little more challenging for sure, but it really forced me to mind form — especially the hip drive, lifting the butt up first, keeping chest up, and so on. It also forced me to think about exploding and driving harder. All good things.

Press

• 2x5x45 (warmup)
• 1x5x45
• 1x3x50
• 1x2x60
• 3x5x75 (work)

These work sets didn’t get much rest between them. I know I’m far from my “potential” in the press, but I think that’s good. I can feel that while I have the gross idea of the movement down, it’s just not wired well into my body yet, but that stands to reason since I haven’t done a lot of presses in this workout yet and furthermore I haven’t done presses in this style well… ever. So my neural pathways are still adapting and adjusting, and frankly, using moderate weights at this stage is good because I’m seeing how it becomes more critical as the weight gets heavier (relative to what I can lift, see my squats). So, slow and steady progress here is fine.

Pull-ups

• 1x9xbodyweight
• 1x8xbodyweight
• 1x6xbodyweight

Someone else was using the Smith machine so I just put a bar on the lower pegs of the squat rack at about the same height as I’d use on the Smith machine (i.e. the lowest I can go that still allows me to hang from the bar and not have my back touch the ground). Not sure if that made any difference in things, but there we go.

Felt good, more explosive on these. I did realize I was exploding up and just “coming down”… forgot to focus on the negative reps. Dang it. Oh well.

Commentary

The workout felt good. Things are getting heavier, but not too heavy. I’m still progressing at what appears to be a good rate. I’m still learning the motions. I’d like to make some time this weekend to watch through the Starting Strength DVD again to catch any form details and refresh myself on some things, especially regarding the press. Hopefully I’ll be able to make some time to do this, but it’s a busy weekend ahead.

I do like my mental paradigm shift. It’ll play well into everything in life.

I like my diet too. Heck, Wife bought me a bunch of steaks, not rib eyes or other top top cuts, but still good sirloin and such. Just a simple seasoning, then cook it, and cut it into about 6-8 oz portions and into the fridge it goes. Won’t last me long, but it’s sure a nice break from shoveling down cans of tuna. 🙂  I’m also wondering if I have lost a little fat weight. I see my weight dropped a bit on the scale, but more importantly my waistband feels a little looser than it was feeling. This is a tough line to walk, where I’m trying to ensure I build muscle and strength but letting my flab be fuel so it gets burned off. I also am needing to find a new multivitamin. I was just taking the store brands, like the Costco general multi and right now Centrum… reason is that before, that’s all that was needed and geez, the Costco bottle is 500 tablets so it lasts you a while.  As well, we were trying to find adult vitamins for the kids to take (i.e. beyond Flintstones, something more complete) but they were hard on their stomachs so that’s why the Centrum was lying around. I’m too cheap to discard them, but coming to the end of it. And I know working like this, I need something more than just your “100% RDA” junk. So I’m trying Universal Nutrition’s Animal Pak (1 packet a day). Yeah yeah, don’t give me any shit over it. The composition is reasonable and the price really isn’t all that bad. I’ve been curious to try their products and so let’s see how this does for me (took first pack this morning). If it doesn’t pan out, I’ll probably switch over to AST 32x or even Beverly’s Super Pak (which is actually kinda expensive). I want vitamins, minerals in doses more appropriate for the workload, I don’t want lots of herbal whatnot gimmicky stuff (e.g. lots of GNC stuff, Opti-Men). We’ll see. No harm in experimenting and finding what works for me. If it all winds up being 6 of 1 and half-dozen of the other, I’ll go with what’s cheapest.

Strong is useful.